Seagate Announces BlackArmor PS110 500GB USB 3.0 Portable Hard Drive

In case you haven't heard, USB 3.0 is the hot new thing, at least in
the connectivity realm. Today at CES, Seagate--a name you surely
recognize in the storage industry--has announced its first major USB
3.0 portable drive: the BlackArmor PS110. It's an on-the-go 2.5" drive
with a 7200RPM spindle speed, and just in case you're worried about
being able to take advantage of the USB 3.0 speeds, the bundle ships
with a PCI Express USB 3.0 card to make your desktop compatible (an a
PC Adapter card for notebooks).

Transfer rates are expected to exceed 100MB/sec (3x faster than USB
2.0), with this drive able to transfer a 25GB HD movie in just four
minutes compared to 14 on USB 2.0. Basically, this kit ships with
everything you need to take advantage of USB 3.0, and if you're up for
it, the 500GB model is available now for $179.99.

“As people continue to amass vast libraries of high-definition photos, movies, and music, the storage needs of US households are forecast to grow more than ten times between 2009 and 2013, and the average digital media storage requirements will exceed a terabyte by 2013[1]”, said Kurt Schreff, vice president and principle analyst of Parks Associates.

Seagate Super Speeds Transfer Rates With USB 3.0 External Portable Hard DriveTo address these growing storage needs, the BlackArmor PS110 USB 3.0 toolkit makes it easier and less time-consuming to store and share large amounts of rich digital content. This new super speed USB 3.0 interface allows easy transfer of large files to and from the external drive at sustained transfer rates of 100MB/s, which is three times faster than current USB 2.0 devices. The familiar scenario of waiting for large files to transfer will now be a thing of the past.

With the BlackArmor PS 110 USB 3.0 drive, a 25GB HD movie can be transferred in just four minutes versus the 14 minutes it would take using a traditional USB 2.0 drive[2]. Simply plug the PC Adapter card into a notebook, connect one end of the included adapter cord to the PC card, the other end to the BlackArmor PS110 drive, and it is set.

“The growing presence of large multimedia files in the home means that connectivity and speed is a top concern for a satisfactory experience,” said Dave Mosley, Seagate executive vice president, Sales, Marketing and Product Line Management. “The delivery of USB 3.0 further underscores our commitment to giving people an efficient way to store, access and share their digital creations.”

Coupling Performance with Protection

Considering the precious, personal content and portability of today’s external hard drives, it is important for people to give thought to protecting the data on the drive. Seagate’s USB 3.0 portable hard drive performance kit couples all the safety and security of the existing BlackArmor PS 110 portable hard drive with the increased performance of USB 3.0 in an exceptionally slim, 12.5mm form factor. Each drive ships with the Acronis business-grade backup suite, automated full-system backup and SafetyDrill+™ software, a bare metal recovery feature, is Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7 compatible and covered by the an industry-leading, 5 year limited warranty.

“To date, the USB interface is the most prevalent interface and will continue to dominate as the interface of choice through 2011,” said Liz Conner, lead research analyst of IDC’s Personal Storage Research. “This will be re-enforced with the introduction of USB 3.0, which provides significantly increased bandwidth to better handle the growing number of large multimedia files being stored to external hard drives.”

The BlackArmor PS110 USB 3.0 performance kit contains everything you need to upgrade your laptop to take advantage of USB 3.0 speeds. The new BlackArmor PS 110 USB 3.0 Performance kit is backwards compatible with USB 2.0 and can be purchased immediately from Seagate.com for a manufacturer’s suggested retail price of $179.99.